Water Filtration Device Shuts Down Terminal at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport with Bomb Scare

A bomb scare shut down terminal 2 at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport for 90 minutes Friday, April 27, 2012. At 5:30 a.m. a checked bag containing PVC pipes and several wires triggered an alert for possible explosives.

About 1,000 people in terminal 2 at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport were cleared from the area. Police bomb squad from Bloomington, a suburb next to the airport, was called to the airport. They took the bag and reopened the terminal a short time later.

Airport spokesman Patrick Hogan said, “We don’t believe that it was an explosive, but these scanners are designed to pick up a number of different kinds of compounds so anytime there is an item that has one of those compounds in it, it alarms.”

Patrick Hogan said, “The questionable items in the bag were two PVC pipes capped at both ends filled with a granular material. There were also a number of wires in the bag that were not connected to the pipes. The individual claimed it was a device for water filtration.”

Airport police released the un-identified man at 8:45 a.m. after they found out the materials in the bag were not explosive. He then was rebooked onto another flight.

Hogan said the Transportation Security Administration could consider civil charges because of the disruption. The man told police he had a similar incident in carrying the device through an airport in Long Beach, California in April 2009.

Terminal 2 at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport is the smaller terminal that serves Southwest Airlines, AirTran, Sun Country and Icelandair. Terminal 1 was not affected.